Rotary pool tables have been existent for many decades and have achieved some degree of popularity because they can be positioned near a wall which would otherwise prevent the player from using a conventional-length cue stick, or for that matter inhibit the player's body between the table and the wall. When a shot is desired on the wall side of the table, the table is merely rotated 180 degrees. It is also possible to utilize the rotary feature to execute all pool shots from a specified player location.
Such rotary tables have two basic disadvantages, one being the disturbance of the playing elements as the table is being rotated, and the other is table stability which is a problem of course in all forms of pool tables. The first has been in part solved by providing discs on the table as opposed to conventional spherical pool balls which of course would roll as the table is being rotated.
The second problem of table stability results from the need of some type of turntable mechanism for the table and thus far the rotary assemblies for the tables provided in the past have not achieved the degree of stability required for commercialization of rotary pool tables, and it is to this deficiency that the present invention in part addresses itself.
Another problem in prior disc type rotary tables is that it is very difficult to strike the cue disc with a cue stick when it is very near or against one of the table side rails.
Examples of rotary prior art billiard and pool tables are found in the Pottin, U.S. Pat. No. 175,495; the Cogswell, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 445,626; the Haskell, U.S. Pat. No. 648,560; the Lawrence, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 662,948; the Knoedler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,777; the Porath, U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,778; the Lacson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,443; the Zimmers, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,655; the Bouchard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,035 and the Laciste, U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,228.
Each of these patents has one or more of the deficiencies noted above.
The Lacson patent discloses a rotary table with disc-type elements in which the discs have recesses formed in them so that the cue stick can achieve engagement with the discs. However, these recesses because they are not formed on the sides of the discs, when impacted by the cue stick, tend to cause the cue discs, or the player's disc for that matter, to bounce on the table top and this of course is not desirable.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a rotary table for a disc-type payer and cue member pool game ameliorating the problems noted above in the prior art.